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2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

Treliving meeting with the press now-ish, indicating the Leafs are more or less done with day 1 UFA signings. Treliving’s pattern with the Leafs has generally been to re-sign the internal extensions, and then sign a fighter day 1, and dive into the bargain bin day 2.

Can’t say I wish the Leafs would have signed any of deals announced so far
 
Can’t say I wish the Leafs would have signed any of deals announced so far

Exactly. I liked the Eklund extension but that’s not a free agent.

I’m flipping through the cap strapped and the teams that ought to be sellers for options.

Our trade asset pool is limited.
 
Ah I legit wondered about Boyd for the Marlies. That's your 1C for Cowan to play with.

Also I know there's bit a bit of griping about Pezzetta but I don't think it's a certainty that he won't be Marlies bound too at the start of the season.
 
Ah I legit wondered about Boyd for the Marlies. That's your 1C for Cowan to play with.

Also I know there's bit a bit of griping about Pezzetta but I don't think it's a certainty that he won't be Marlies bound too at the start of the season.

I think Pazzetta sticks on the roster because they're going to need someone to fight. Berube will want someone to do that.
 
Day 1 of the off-season so who knows what can be pulled off as the summer drags on but the table scraps left in free agency certainly aren't very attractive for replacing Marner in the top 6. Maybe it's all on further Knies development, Matthews healthy, a rebound from McMann. Maybe they are banking on Cowan being in the NHL
 
The dirty secret about free agency: It’s often more about the mistakes you avoid rather than the players you add.
Look no further than last year’s big spenders and how they fared afterward:

The lay of the land heading into Day 2

LWCentreRW
Knies
McMann
Maccelli
Lorentz
Pezzetta
Matthews
Tavares
Roy
Laughton
Domi
Kampf
Nylander
Jarnkrok

Defense and goaltending stay the same for now

The biggest gaps are naturally (after so many seasons where it was overloaded) on RW, particularly in the Forecheck model if we want to leverage some of the playmaking skill on LW more. Maccelli and Domi are both capable of playing, but not maximized on RW. Roy is another natural RW option if we get a legit 2C (ahem Kadri)

So at this time, I wouldn't pursue a Jarnkrok trade too hard, unless something filling a need is coming back.

Options still on the board: Jack Roslovic for the fast and passy type, Mason Appleton for forechecker with size.
 
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Mangiapane and Brazeau would have been nice. If you added those two and dealt Kampf and Jarnkrok we'd have:

Knies-Matthews-Domi
Maccelli-Tavares-Nylander
McMann-Roy-Mangiapane
Lorentz-Laughton-Brazeau

With the D and G and Myers, Reaves, and Pezzetta in the press box there would still be over $4.3mil in cap space. Obviously not as good up top, but a lot deeper.

I'm guessing the team had their sights set on one middle-6 forward and one top-6 forward this offseason, and they chose Maccelli over Mangiapane for the middle-6 option. Little more potential there so I get that. Still need a top-6 forward though, either making a pitch on Ehlers or through trade.
 
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Day 1 of the off-season so who knows what can be pulled off as the summer drags on but the table scraps left in free agency certainly aren't very attractive for replacing Marner in the top 6. Maybe it's all on further Knies development, Matthews healthy, a rebound from McMann. Maybe they are banking on Cowan being in the NHL
To be fair, there wasn't a whole lot in the UFA market even before it opened - and one of the best available decided to re-commit long-term to the team he already played for. The whole forward market was basically Ehlers, Granlund, and scraps. Ehlers is still out there, but, none of the rest were ever replacements for much of what the Leafs lost in Marner and the Leafs are better off not having committed big money and term to any of them. Improvements are going to come through trades, health, and growth.
 
To be fair, there wasn't a whole lot in the UFA market even before it opened - and one of the best available decided to re-commit long-term to the team he already played for. The whole forward market was basically Ehlers, Granlund, and scraps. Ehlers is still out there, but, none of the rest were ever replacements for much of what the Leafs lost in Marner and the Leafs are better off not having committed big money and term to any of them. Improvements are going to come through trades, health, and growth.
Yeah, I'm not really holding it against the team. The problem was not trading Marner (or Nylander) 2 years ago. This is the cards we have now and this just happens to be a terrible offseason to try and replace top end talent. I don't think that spending 8+ million on Ehlers is the right call.
 
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